Share This Story!

Christie's 'Sandy czar' resigning

TRENTON, N.J. — Gov. Chris Christie's point person for Sandy recovery has been replaced. Marc-Philip Ferzan, who was appointed a month after superstorm Sandy struck as director of the Governor's Office of

Marc-Philip Ferzan, who was appointed a month after superstorm Sandy struck as director of the Governor's Office of Recovery and Rebuilding, has left for a teaching job at the University of Virginia. New Jersey's new "Sandy czar" is the branch's former deputy executive director, Terrence Brody.

Ferzan's office coordinated disaster-recovery efforts across state government and helped launch more than 50 programs. But he maintained an almost invisible public profile, declining requests to testify to the Legislature, talk with reporters or meet with some recovery-focused organizations. He later was accused by Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer of linking Sandy aid with approval of a high-rise development.

Despite those troubles, Christie said in announcing the departure, that Ferzan did his job with "great professionalism, effectiveness, and with the needs of Sandy survivors always in the front of his mind."

Sen. Jennifer Beck, R-Monmouth, concurred.

"I'm very disappointed. I call at 9 o'clock at night, and he'd still be at the office. And then you'd call back at 10 and he'd still be in the office. For the time period that we had him here, he really dedicated himself to helping us work through the bureaucracy and try to get people help," Beck said.

Beck said Ferzan helped to secure a federal waiver to allow Reconstruction, Rehabilitation, Elevation, and Mitigation Program grant recipients to select their own contractors, rather than ones assigned by the state; to ensure people got reimbursed for work they did before they submitted their RREM application; and to get Ocean Grove's boardwalk, after two denials, eligible for federal funding.

"Thankfully, he was one of the handful of people that understood the federal agencies and their requirements, because it's not straightforward," Beck said. "It's a very archaic, byzantine labyrinth of regulation and law, and he was really good at navigating that and had relationships with some of the agencies that were very helpful in moving things forward."

Advocacy organizations that have scuffled with Christie and the Department of Community Affairs expressed hope for more of a relationship with Brody than they had with Ferzan.

"He seemed very busy, but it wasn't working with us," said Staci Berger, executive director of the Housing & Community Development Network of New Jersey. "Hopefully, a change in leadership brings some new level of energy to the cause and Mr. Brody will be willing and enthusiastic about meeting with community organizations and partnering with us to make sure the Sandy recovery helps everyone recover."

"We've been concerned for a long time as to the lack of visibility and accessibility that Ferzan has had and how he has just refused to come to public hearings and meet with the public. I hope that his successor will do a better job of those things," said Adam Gordon, staff attorney for the Fair Share Housing Center. "I certainly would hope he would take a more public and transparent path."

Ferzan, 46, was the only person interviewed five times by Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher investigators hired by the Christie administration to review Zimmer's Sandy aid allegations and the George Washington Bridge controversy. For the fourth and fifth interviews, Ferzan was accompanied by counsel from the BakerHostetler law firm.

Brody, 36, who lives in Chatham, has been deputy executive director of GORR since December 2012. He was brought there by Ferzan, with whom he worked at the Office of the Attorney General, first as a special assistant to the attorney general and then as chief of staff.

Brody was among the state officials who met with representatives from the Rockefeller Group, whose high-rise project is at the crux of Zimmer's allegations that state officials, including Ferzan, were pressuring her to approve the development plan to get federal Sandy funds. Ferzan denied the allegations.

Brody told Gibson Dunn internal investigators that he interacted with Zimmer about historical flooding issues in the city and attempts to find federal funds for Hoboken's flood pump and flood wall proposal.

Brody told investigators Zimmer confronted him in October 2013 outside a Rebuild By Design competition conference at New York University to press for Christie to endorse Hoboken's plan. He responded that the state wanted more details and noted there were limited financial resources. Investigators said Zimmer yelled at him about Hoboken not getting enough funding and walked away.

Ferzan has been hired as a lecturer at the University of Virginia's Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, where he will teach a course in white-collar criminal justice policy. The announcement of his departure from state government stated he was leaving to support a career opportunity for his wife, Kimberly Kessler Ferzan, who joined the faculty of the University of Virginia School of Law. She had taught at Rutgers-Camden's law school since 2000.

Ferzan worked at the U.S. Attorney's Office in Newark from 2001 to 2010, which included Christie's tenure as head of that office, before he joined Christie's administration in Trenton as executive assistant attorney general.

Ferzan had been working for PricewaterhouseCoopers Advisory for less than six months when Christie asked him to head the Sandy recovery office.